One in Ten Living Below Poverty Line

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One in Ten Living Below Poverty Line

The proportion of people living in Iceland who have very low income was 9.3 percent in 2013, or around 30,000 people.

The figure comes from the latest Statistics Iceland quality of life report, which was published this week.

The poverty line is defined as being people earning less than 60 percent of the average household income in Iceland, RÚV reports.

For individuals that means living on gross income less than 170,600 (USD 1,520/EUR 1,100) per month, or for a four-person family that figure is ISK 358,400 (USD 3,200/EUR 2,300).

The proportion of people on very low income has been relatively stable around 10 percent since the quality of life reports began being published in 2004.

Single parents are most likely to fall into the group, with 27 percent below the poverty line. Men who live alone are more likely to live in technical poverty than women who live alone – with around 23 percent of single men earning less than 60 percent of average wages, compared to nine percent of single women.